State treasurer recognizes MBS Textbook Exchange as "Best of Missouri"

COLUMBIA -MBS Textbook Exchange in Columbia is being recognized for promoting inclusion in the workplace.

October is Disability Employment Awareness Month and to celebrate, Missouri State Treasurer Eric Schmitt is giving "Best in Missouri" awards to businesses that consistently hire people with disabilities.

"We’re going around the state honoring individuals with disabilities who are contributing to their communities through the workplace and also employers who have really stepped up and honored that dignity that every person has by hiring people of all abilities," Schmitt said.

Schmitt presented two MBS leaders the award Tuesday and then was given a tour of the facility, which is the largest textbook supplier in the U.S. and Canada.

"We met some employees that have been here for 25-30 years and we want to acknowledge that," Schmitt said. "We’ve given them the Best in Missouri award to make sure that they know that the state of Missouri certainly does recognize what they’re doing and we’re very proud of them."

MBS employs more than 1,000 people on average throughout the year and Jerome Rader, the vice president of human resources, said the company always works to hire people of all abilities.

"The entire 28 years that I’ve been here, we’ve worked with different agencies providing these types of opportunities for people with varying levels of disability," Rader said.

The textbook supplier holds nearly 200,000 titles at any given time and ships out more than 12 million books every year.

Rader said the team at MBS was humbled to receive the award and grateful for the opportunity to show off the distribution center.

"We’re honored with the opportunity to get the Missouri Best Award," he said. "We have tried to provide those opportunities to people with disabilities for decades, we look at it more as an opportunity to provide somebody those opportunities to work, we look at it as not a disability but what they’re able to do in the workplace. It’s been a great blessing to have these employees be a part of our family."